Appeals court sends McDonald’s robber back to La Salle County Court

A Chicago man serving 58 years for robbing a Peru McDonald’s is headed back to La Salle County Circuit Court for new proceedings.

Eddie Stiff, 53, remains in the Illinois Department of Corrections but will be remanded to an Ottawa courtroom over a technicality. An appeals court ruled Tuesday a required post-trial document wasn’t sufficiently completed.

Stiff had pleaded guilty to armed robbery for the 2017 holdup of the McDonald’s on Shooting Park Road. Stiff was arrested hours later after police retrieved a string of incriminating pieces of evidence. Notably, Stiff had been paroled less than a year earlier for his role in a Cook County murder-robbery.

Stiff later tried to vacate his guilty plea and his lawyer at that phase of the case, Assistant La Salle County Public Defender Ryan Hamer, filed a certificate verifying he consulted with Stiff regarding possible trial errors and avenues for appeal.

But the document wasn’t complete enough for the 3rd District Appellate Court. In a unanimous ruling issued Tuesday, Justice Lance Peterson wrote that the certificate should have included “affidavits of the witness testimony or amended the motion to remove the claim if (Hamer) believed it lacked merit. (Hamer) did neither.”

Peterson and the justices remanded Stiff’s case with specific instructions. While Stiff raised other issues, the justices decided the defective certificate needed to be addressed first.

Hamer said he is unable to comment on a pending case.